I Became The Villain The Hero Is Obsessed With chapter 343

343 – Shocking Truth

As the sun was setting, it was just about evening.

A man with dark circles under his eyes waved from a restaurant.

“Hey, Stardust. Over here, over here.”

“…Kim Jihyun.”

Shadow Walker, Kim Jihyun.

A blonde woman in casual clothes entered the room where he was.

Her name was Shin Haru, known as Stardust in her hero identity.

That’s right.

Early in the night, the two heroes met at a bar after a long time.

“Where’s Seol A?”

“Ah, Seol A couldn’t make it because she didn’t have time.”

“…Hmm, I see.”

Shadow Walker slightly tilted his head in response to Shin Haru’s casual reply but soon accepted it.

This gathering was organized by Stardust.

Shadow Walker came out just because Stardust had suggested meeting up after a long time.

“It’s really been a while since we last saw each other.”

“Indeed.”

Shin Haru nodded at Shadow Walker’s remark.

In fact, although the two were heroes, they rarely met.

Shadow Walker was invincible at night, so he was active only after sunset. Stardust was mostly active during the day and rested at night.

In particular, Shadow Walker slept during the day, so their chances of meeting were even more infrequent.

“Anyway, you’re getting married this time, right? Congratulations on your wedding.”

Shadow Walker gratefully expressed his thanks at Stardust’s simple congratulations.

His face looked tired with dark circles, but there was a smile on his lips.

“Let’s order something first.”

As they ordered food,

Shadow Walker, Kim Jihyun, glanced at Stardust’s face.

‘…Does she seem okay?’

What caught Kim Jihyun’s attention was Stardust’s condition.

Recently, people from the association and the news said that her condition seemed unstable, so he was secretly worried. But she appeared more okay than he expected.

‘…But why did she want to meet after such a long time?’

Did she have some sort of concern?

Shadow Walker thought quietly to himself.

The reason he decided to meet her today was one thing.

Having heard that Stardust was struggling a lot lately, he wanted to help her with any concerns and heal her mental health if needed.

It seemed that was why she had called him as well.”

“In fact, his guess was exactly right.

It was just that the concern was about a relationship advice…

Yes, that’s what Stardust was thinking to himself.

He thought that since Kim Jahyun had already been married, he might be able to give some advice from a man’s perspective.

How to meet Egoistic again, well…

Anyway, the two, who met after a long time, let off steam.

“So, things are getting pretty serious overseas these days…”

“Yeah. They say the number of villains is increasing, while the number of heroes is decreasing. The association president says it’s chaos in the Korean Association too. They’re asking us for help.”

“Really?”

“Yep. To be honest, with our current strength, we’re quite powerful now. As for me, ahem… It’s a bit weird to say this myself, but I’m still fighting at night. And you, well, you’re an S-class, so there’s nothing more to say. Aren’t you now in the upper ranks of the world hero rankings?”

“Ah… So what happened?”

“What do you mean what happened? We’re already struggling to protect Korea, let alone going somewhere else. Honestly, even our generation hasn’t seen any new A-class heroes for years.”

“Hmm…”

A conversation about the state of the world.

“Um… My love story? I don’t know why you’re curious about that, but, uh, if you want to know how Sookja and I met…”

The love story of Shadow Walker.

Stardust didn’t know why he suddenly became curious about this, as he was never interested in this kind of thing before, but Shadow Walker explained sincerely anyway.

On his way back from stopping a terrorist attack at night, he happened to meet a woman smoking a cigarette while leaning on the railing of a company rooftop, gazing at the night view.

Shadow Walker’s girlfriend was a hardworking office worker who always worked late.

Out of curiosity, he started a conversation with her, and as she vented her work stress without paying much attention to the fact that he was a hero… After that, he would always visit the rooftop whenever he had a terrorist attack nearby, and she would always be there…

As they continued to meet, they found that they clicked, which was a pretty cliché story.

While Shadow Walker was explaining all this over dinner, Stardust listened very attentively.”

“Sometimes my girlfriend asks incomprehensible questions, like how she approached me.

Anyway, we had various conversations like that.

Finally, following Stardust’s lead,

“Right, and that S-class villain Egoistic retired, didn’t he?”

The topic naturally shifted to Egoistic.

Glancing.

‘…’

As he drank, Stardust quietly thought.

… Now, by leading the conversation about Egoistic like this, he would naturally bring up the topic. After saying that Egoistic might not be as bad as he thought, if his reaction was positive, she would confess her interest in Egoistic. Then, she would ask for advice…

Having drawn such a big picture, her prepared words were,

“Ah… Egoistic.”

At the sigh of Shadow Walker who heard the word Egoistic, her mouth closed for a moment.

“Egoistic. Right. S-class villain. He was your arch-nemesis, right?”

“…Yeah.”

As he cut the steak with a knife,

Shadow Walker spoke calmly, with a sincere tone that didn’t contain a hint of falsehood.

“He’s living on borrowed time.”

“…”

Hesitating.

At that moment when he said those words, Stardust’s hand, which was holding the glass, stopped, but

Shadow Walker, who was looking down and cutting the steak, didn’t notice.

“To be honest, I don’t know what you think, but I don’t think Egoistic is a bad guy. … I can’t go into more detail because it’s a matter of men’s loyalty. Tsk. It’s a pity. It seems like he retired because his time is running out. Sigh… Why does heaven always take away such talent…”

As he said that and sighed, Shadow Walker, who raised his head,

“Hm…?”

Seeing Stardust frozen in place, he frowned.

… Why? If it was Stardust who had been with him for years, shouldn’t he have already noticed? Even he, who had only known her for a few days, had noticed right away.

… Thinking that way, Shadow Walker strangely found it odd that Stardust, who had not realized Egoistic was living on borrowed time, hadn’t noticed.”

“Indeed. Sometimes you can only notice certain things from a distance. Besides, there could have been some ill feelings. But still, if it’s Stardust, who is famous for being cold-hearted towards villains in this field, it wouldn’t be more than that.

Maybe he didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t catch him, and the guy disappeared.

When Shadow Walker was having such leisurely thoughts.

Stardust, who was staring at him with blank eyes,

Couldn’t hide his shaking voice and asked him,

“What, what are you talking about…?”

“Hmm?”

“Terminal, terminal illness… Egoistic?”

Though Stardust asked with a pale face,

Shadow Walker, who covered his face with his hand and thought about Egoistic, didn’t see his expression as he entered his own world again.

“What do you mean… Stardust, don’t you know? That guy. He vomits blood every day.”

“Wait… just a moment… Ah.”

When Stardust’s gaze seemed to realize something and faced the empty air,

Shadow Walker began to speak, completely immersed and leaving out any basis or logic.

“He must have been struggling so much. To be active like that with a dying body. Even if he’s a villain, when I think about what he’s done for the world with that body, Stardust, I can’t help but shed tears.”

From noble mtl dot com

“No… no, no, no. That can’t be…”

“I can’t tell you the exact reason either… but he was like that. He said it was a secret. Ah… what a noble sacrifice.”

Shadow Walker murmured in a disheartened voice, not realizing that Stardust was slowly panicking and tears were welling up in his eyes.

In fact, there was no basis or logic in what Shadow Walker was saying. It was simply his speculation.

However, his voice, which described the fact that Egoistic was terminally ill, was full of appeal, even though it lacked any trivialities.

Even if Egoistic himself heard this, he might unknowingly think, ‘What? Was I terminally ill?’ for a moment.”

“Anyway… what I wanted to say is that Ego Stick had only a short time left to live, so he retired… Wait, Stardust?”

And then, with a sigh, Shadow Walker finally raised his head and realized.

That something was off about Stardust.

“No… that can’t be… Ah… Aaah…”

Silently shedding tears.

Leaning slightly forward, looking down, and trembling a little.

“Stardust…?”

“What have I been doing all this time… Ah…”

As Stardust continued to cry.

“Huuk!”

Kwaang!

She suddenly stood up, almost breaking the desk, crying and rushing out.

Breaking the window.

Crash!

“….?”

Left alone, Shadow Walker blinked and finished chewing the steak in his mouth.

At that moment, the phone rang for Lee Seol A.

Ring-ring.

“Hello.”

[Hello. Oh, Kim Ja-hyun. Did you meet Haru? What happened? Ah, are you meeting right now?]

“Um, no… Shin Haru left first.”

[Oh, really? So, what happened? Did you listen to Haru’s concerns and help her recover mentally?]

“Um…”

Recalling Stardust who had cried, broken the window, and rushed out, Shadow Walker calmly told Lee Seol A.

“It seems like it didn’t go well.”

[…Huh?]

***

In this way.

Three months had passed since Stardust learned the truth about Ego Stick from Shadow Walker.

Ego Stick had not shown himself even once.

Really.

Not even once.